Comments on: Men Like It Here, and So Do Young Optimistshttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/men-like-it-here-and-so-do-young-optimists/
Blogging From the Five BoroughsThu, 06 Oct 2011 16:51:56 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/section/NytSectionHeader.gifNYThttp://www.nytimes.com
By: Stevehttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/men-like-it-here-and-so-do-young-optimists/comment-page-1/#comment-686063
Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:35:29 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/men-like-it-here-and-so-do-young-optimists/#comment-686063You twisted the point. No one is against bike lanes, just we are opposed to lack of planning, common sense in their application and not inviting the Small Business Congress and other major small business organizations to the table for our input into moving traffic and reducing congestion; now agravated severely by poor traffic policies across the five boros. Of course saftey is important to all of us, but walking and texting without looking, carelessness by all is a key culprit to many injuries. It can’t always be the driver’s fault to the injuries.
Ask any experienced delivery driver, cabbie, mid town limo driver about what the loss of 50% of east/west traffic lanes, car lanes across the city, unnecessary traffic islands, poor placement of bike lanes, loss of key exits and entrances at highways have done to traffic flow. I drive in the city everyday and witness first hand pedestrians & bike riders ignoring the vehicles like they don’t exist every single day, countless times. We all must learn to share the road and work together and stop making car people as the pariahs.

Oh, yea, and the notion that moving traffic along faster will not result in purchases, is backward. At least we are passing through and may see something and come back. Without sharing the road and having pedestrain malls, we never pass through and thus will never come back to something we didn’t see in the first place; precisely why pedestrian malls have phased out across the country in the last 20 years, except in very limited areas where they actually work well for all. That is because of good close by abundant parking usually adjacent to those areas like in Portland Maine, Seattle, Boston Market place….I say GO America with good old fashioned Common Sense!

]]>By: Rickhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/men-like-it-here-and-so-do-young-optimists/comment-page-1/#comment-658317
Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:01:02 +0000http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/men-like-it-here-and-so-do-young-optimists/#comment-658317One big problem with “small business” is how disconnected its interest groups are with reality. There’s a big disconnect between “more cars” and “faster.” While not faster, more cars means less room for pedestrians, who matter most to retail in urban NYC. More traffic also slows down deliveries for any business and therefore increases the cost of those deliveries. Faster traffic probably means people are passing through, not stopping to make purchases.

(From what I’ve seen, actual data doesn’t support Steve Barrison’s assertions either. Traffic is now faster in that part of Midtown, though admittedly not by as much as anticipated. Better yet, pedestrian accidents are down.)